By J.M. Kalil, Las Vegas Review-Journal
Southern Nevada law enforcement leaders are upset that federal officials did not share with them allegations that a terrorist sleeper cell in Detroit wanted to destroy Las Vegas.
Undersheriff Doug Gillespie said he, Sheriff Bill Young and other area law enforcement leaders were not aware of such allegations until reading a Review-Journal article Thursday. The story related a government informant’s testimony in Detroit indicating terrorists with video footage of the MGM Grand wanted to destroy Las Vegas.
“This is the first that we heard that they have received any information that Las Vegas had a direct threat,” said Gillespie, second-in-command of the Metropolitan Police Department, Nevada’s largest law enforcement agency.
“It has definitely caused us some concern,” Gillespie said Thursday.
“The sheriff has been in contact with the FBI as well as the U.S. Attorney’s office today. We’re waiting to hear from those agencies as to why we did not receive any information about this.”
The testimony was given Wednesday at a federal trial in Detroit of three Moroccans and an Algerian charged with conspiracy to provide material support or resources to terrorists.
The trial of Ahmed Hannan, Karim Koubriti, Farouk Ali-Haimoud and their handler, Abdel-Ilah Elmardoudi, is the first in the United States for a terror cell detected after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Government witness Youssef Hmimssa, testifying as part of a plea agreement reached with government prosecutors last week, said one of the defendants spoke to him in June 2001 and August 2001 about Islamic extremist “brothers” organizing for massive attacks in the United States.
Hmimssa said Hannan referred to Las Vegas as the “City of Satan.” Hannan also talked about the brothers destroying the city, Hmimssa testified, because they were angry that Arabs spent money on sinful behavior in Las Vegas.
The four defendants in the case were arrested following a raid on a Detroit apartment that turned up a day planner that detailed planned attacks on an American air base in Turkey and a hospital in Jordan.
Agents also recovered a videotape that federal prosecutors in Detroit say depicts surveillance of potential targets including Disneyland and the MGM Grand.
“We were aware of the videotape, but in and of itself, it didn’t give us the sense that Las Vegas was a threat,” Gillespie said. “But you take it along with what has been said in court, and it adds a little more concern.”
At a regularly scheduled meeting Thursday morning, the sheriff conferred with Ellen Knowlton, the FBI’s special agent-in-charge of the Las Vegas field office, and Daniel Bogden, U.S. attorney for Nevada, to find out if they knew of any information about Las Vegas that would surface at the federal trial.
“We have not heard back,” Gillespie said Thursday evening.
“But we were assured we would get some feedback as to why we in Las Vegas were not made aware of what they knew in Detroit.”
The FBI has previously been criticized for failing to adequately share information gathered by its agents in different field offices.
The bureau also has been criticized for not fully exploring potentially important terror-related clues.
For instance, the Associated Press reported an FBI agent in Arizona alerted officials in Washington in July 2001 that several Arabs were training at a U.S. aviation school and urged that agents contact other schools nationwide where Middle Easterners might be studying.
The FBI sent the intelligence to its terrorism experts for analysis and was considering a nationwide canvass of flight schools when the suicide hijackers struck.
Bogden declined to discuss specifics of testimony in the Detroit trial and whether he was aware of what Hmimssa was going to testify to as part of the government’s case.
“If we know any information, it is passed on,” Bogden said.
“We usually don’t discuss things that are going on in trial. I will say that a jury is going to determine that witness’ credibility, whether that individual is telling the truth or not.”
Once a month, the leaders of the local field office of the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s office meet with commanders of police agencies in Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas, as well as other city and county government officials to share information about any possible terror threats and other intelligence.
The meeting for April was Thursday morning.
“It just happened that the article came out this morning, so that obviously was a topic of discussion,” Gillespie said Thursday.
Separately, members of Southern Nevada’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, which includes local police detectives and federal agents, work together daily investigating tips and sharing intelligence about possible threats.
Las Vegas police Capt. Mike McClary, commander of the Homeland Security Bureau, said the allegations revealed at the trial should not alarm Southern Nevadans.
“It doesn’t change our assessment of the vulnerability of Las Vegas,” said McClary, a ranking member of the Joint Terrorism Task Force.
“We don’t need to be breaking out the duct tape and plastic sheeting yet. You can keep those in storage.”
Knowlton, the head of the local FBI office, released a statement Thursday that her office was aware of the federal trial in Detroit, but that Justice Department guidelines and the right to a fair trial prevented them from commenting on the case.
“Many cities could be considered possible targets of terrorist acts,” the statement said.
“However, at this time, there is no specific, credible information pertaining to Las Vegas or any other city in Nevada.”
Gillespie said he and other law enforcement leaders found the allegations that surfaced at the trial Wednesday particularly troubling because of past statements public safety officials have made to the public and private security forces at local casinos.
“We’ve been advising the community as well as the casino industry that we had no information that Las Vegas is or ever was a target,” Gillespie said.
He stressed that he did not want people to think Las Vegas police sought to mislead residents and businesses when they made those statements.
“We did not have the information, and that’s the truth,” Gillespie said. “We’ve been told all along that Las Vegas is not a threat.”